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Apparently, overclocked CRTs can output X-rays.
Fuck. Me.

Bye (probably).

Comments
  • 5
    Was this not common knowledge anymore? Really old CRTs had radiation as default, they were revised to be "radiation free" a couple years later. I remember my cousin had one of those monitors that were certified to be radiation free :D we were always joking about it.

    However afaik it was always within safe levels even in the old ones, it's just that even safe levels are unsafe if you're glued to it 24/7 :D...

    So it definitely doesn't surprise me that you can make it produce more x-rays if you pump more energy into it
  • 2
    https://reddit.com/r/crtgaming/...

    Even if you could detect xrays above background the energy is still the inverse square of the distance. Which means traveling through the air even 5 feet significantly reduces the energy in the body. If you are really concerned get a geiger counter and see what it actually is compared to background. The dude at the link above had 20x background coming off his bathroom tiles cause uranium.
  • 2
    I don't see how overclocking a CRT monitor would cause additional X-rays. Here's why:

    The radiation is caused by the high speed electrons hitting the front from the inside after travelling through the vacuum tube. That's also in normal operation, it's just how CRTs work.

    The amount of energy these electrons have is controlled by the high voltage of the tube which has nothing to do with the line / screen frequency (unless you also find a way to increase the high voltage).

    Overclocking a CRT monitor can damage it if the line frequency is so high that its circuit is damaged, but that is independent of X-ray.
  • 5
    Any CRT that is not super old has leaded glass that absorbs x-rays, and safety measures that shut the whole thing off if tube voltage goes above safe levels.

    As long as you don't glue your face to the screen (literally) you are safe. You get more harmful radiation just standing out in a sunny day without sunscreen.
  • 1
    There are pretty good CRT emulation options in Retroarch. Let that old CRT finally rest in peace.
  • 0
    @Oktokolo I helped my friend carry a huge crt tv up his stairs a couple of years back (to trash it thankfully). Thing weighed like 150 lbs.
  • 0
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